(Posted March 2, 2018)
Gloucester Music Teachers Association honours top students
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

The Gloucester Music Teachers Association held its annual First Class Honours recital on Sunday evening, bringing together some of the most gifted young pianists in the east end.

The students who ranged in age from eight to 18, had all achieved a mark of 80 per cent or higher on their Royal Conservatory of Music exam in the past year. Those students who received the highest mark in their respective grade levels were presented with a special medallion.

This year’s top Gloucester Music Teacher Association students received a medallion for receiving the highest mark at their grade level. Staff photo

Among the 17 recipients was eight-year-old Spencer Song, who received the highest mark in Ontario for the Preparatory B exam, and Amy Li, 18, who received the highest mark in the country on her ARCT theory exam.

Both individuals performed during Sunday’s recital at Orléans United Church. Song opened the program with Muzio Clementi’s Sonatina in G Major, Op 36 No 2. His flawless performance belied the fact that he only started playing the piano a year ago.

Li brought the recital to a close with beautiful rendition of Lieberstraum No 3 by the 19th century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. In between were several spellbinding performances, too numerous to be able to mention them all in this limited space.

Some of my personal highlights included eight-year-old Emily Liu’s rendition of Melody; Athena Liau’s performance of Sonatina in G Major by Latour; and Olyn Wang’s rendition of Dussek’s Sonatina in G Major.

The program included performances by several sets of siblings as well, including twins Zoe and Isabelle Dudzinski who played Fantasia on Greensleeves as a duet.

Micheal, Cindy and Iris Li also performed as did Alice and Michael Yang and the Hou siblings Emily, Alexandre and Charlotte who walked away with the lion’s share of the hardware.

Each of them received the highest mark in their respective grade levels on both their practical and theory exams, which is a first for the siblings.

Emily Hou also recently performed at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City along with Michael Li and Alice Yang, as part of the Crescendo International Music Competition sponsored by Steinway Pianos.

She did so well, in fact, that she was invited to take part in a special international music camp being held over a two-week period in Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg.

Emily will also be taking part in the upcoming Kiwanis Music Festival competition with many of the other young pianists who took part in Sunday’s recital. The Festival is being held in Ottawa from April 3-28.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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